So They Ran
by problemPerson
Summary: AU. An unexpected incident makes two people run.


Hikigaya Hachiman looked at the predicament before him and sighed.

Never one for vocal or expressive emotional display, he commended himself for not attempting to wring his own neck. Because that wouldn't change his predicament much; his predicament was not one that you invent for yourself, to make believe that the world still cares about you, so that you solve it and go back to the world with 'the world still needs me' plastered all over your face. That one was for ambitious riajuus set upon stamping their presence on everyone they met.

No, his predicament was different because it had a physical form. To be exact, a raven haired beauty, who looked about the same age as him (looks could be deceptive, Hikigaya knew, so refrained from thinking about 'girl' or 'woman'). This beauty was munching a piece of bread without a care in the world, even as Hikigaya's brain grinded its teeth in frustration.

"You seem calm about the whole situation."

"There is nothing to worry about. My father and his henchmen will kill you and take me away."

"You seem calm about that."

"It is nothing to be calm or to worry. It is what it is."

The frown adorning Hikigaya's face turned to a scowl. "I am not concerned about you. My concerns revolve solely around my immediate future."

"That is what you get mister, for poking your nose is someone's business."

On a normal day, Hikigaya would have carefully explained to anyone who bothered that he was as interested in others' business as a sloth hibernating in the middle of winter. Here, however, he risked contradicting himself.

"If you must know, I usually keep my nose out of where it doesn't belong."

"I saw that myself," she said, coolly.

Granted, there is nothing more wrong-place-to-stick-your-nose than grabbing a lady and kidnapping her in front of fifty-odd witnesses, but Hikigaya had his pride to defend.

"I could never see a girl in trouble and not do anything about it."

"By getting said girl in even more trouble?"

Hikigaya would have gladly undone everything he had for the girl (read 'put her into trouble') if it were in his capabilities. Unfortunately, time-travel was not on the 108-skill list he frequently quoted from. Hikigaya vowed he would acquire that once he divested himself from the girl. Which didn't seem likely anywhere in the foreseeable future.

Resigned to his fate, he stared out of the window at the scenery that had changed to green fields, a far cry from the concrete jungle they had just run from.

"I am not sure you know that, but it is extremely rude to kidnap a girl and not introduce yourself."

Indeed.

"Hikigaya Hachiman." He did not turn from the window.

"Yukinoshita Yukino, I am-"

Hikigaya's gaze snapped back to her, and she stopped abruptly. Looking rather self-conscious, she made a small noise that seemed a cross between a snort and a chuckle. But pretty scions of entitled families do not snort in public.

"Are you intent on rubbing salt into my abraded misdirected sense-of-chivalry?"

"It is mere politeness to introduce yourself to your company, Hikigaya-kun, even if they already know about you."

It was Hikigaya's turn to snort.

"And an abrasion isn't an open wound, no point in rubbing salt into them."

Now Hikigaya had to chuckle.

"Though I sense your misdirected sense-of-chivalry is not all that is wrong with you."

"Indeed. Would you care to elaborate, Your Highness?"

She swept her long black hair over her shoulder. "I am saving my therapy for a more opportune moment."

"What for? You can barely hold back your insults now."

She shrugged, and made an expression of deep contemplation. "I don't know, it must have been your eyes, or the fact that you are taking me to an unknown place after plucking me out from my friends and family-"

"Family? Oh please-", Hikigaya said, disdainfully.

"-which is against my will-"

"-which you can walk out freely if you want to."

"-can't very well walk out of a moving train, can I?"

"All I am saying is, you can very well walk out at the next station. You have some money on you, right?"

She was quiet for a moment, then said very rapidly, not meeting him in the eye, "Please put that thought out of your head that you are 'saving' me from my family. You merely happened to be a passerby ill-informed of my situation who took an irrational decision complicating my situation and yours by pandering to your sense of accomplishment of justice."

Hikigaya gave a thoughtful second, then said, "Very well."

Then she said very slowly, "Though I am not ungrateful or anything ... "

Talk about mixed signals, Hikigaya thought. She was definitely driving him up the wall.

"So where are we going?" she asked, an obvious attempt to change the subject.

"The last place this train goes."

She raised her eyebrows. "My family will still find us, you know."

Hikigaya smiled at the empty seats next to them. "We shall see ... "

She gave a shrewd look. "Had I not met you for the first time today, I would have sworn you were attempting to have your way with-"

Hikigaya raised up his hand. "I have a sense of chivalry, as you pointed out. I would not-"

"-scratch that, I am still suspicious of your intentions."

Hikigaya gave a good natured smile.

She looked at him curiously. "Won't your family be worried about you missing?"

"My sister is in university, we usually only talk on the phone. My parents were happy to see their children successful and retired to the countryside."

"Successful? I don't think any parent would consider a dead-eyed kidnapper successful-"

"Of course, success in society is how high others put you on a pedestal and how snottily you look down upon them."

"That, I think, is a problem more with your twisted way of thought, rather than society in general."

"I doubt you would consider a salaryman who slaves alone at a desk the whole day for a living, successful, though I might add I am quite satisfied with my job."

"So you were indeed talking about yourself."

"The fools relegated me to the back-burner, because they were scared about how I successful I was getting-"

"They were more probably worried about the company's image if someone like you became its face."

"Not my fault the Editor got a barrage of aggrieved phone calls after the interview I took-"

"You are a journalist and you kidnap innocent sweet girls on the street-"

"-while I was just trying to give the people an understanding of what that guy was saying between the lines. Oh: you are neither innocent nor sweet. Do not delude yourself."

"The day I worry about your impression of me is the day I lose my self-esteem, which is never going to happen."

"Your pride is worthless. On flat feet, you are only as good as anybody else."

"People have envied me the day I was born, Hikigaya-kun. I am sorry to say you are quite behind in the line of naysayers-"

The scenery had changed, but the two people talking animatedly were oblivious to it. Indeed, it would seem that they were quite enjoying each others' company, which would be hard to believe if one had witnessed the scene that had in fact brought the two of them together. That in fact, Hikigaya, a factor as unknown to the family gathering as they were to him, had burst his way into its center, punched a well-dressed bloke in the center of the center, and dragged the pretty girl next to the center, out of that restaurant to the nearest train station. What had prompted this unusually rash act, and why her family, and more interestingly, the girl, had let him have his way, we would never know. For Hikigaya is quite a closed book, and didn't talk much to his companion (er, kidnappee), while he changed trains. That is, till the aforementioned conversation.

Yukinoshita took a moment in between her insults to give her opponent some breathing space, and glanced out at the scenery once more. She had had quite enough to eat, which was possible only 'cause she had mostly starved herself that morning. The bread brought back memories of her college days, with all the freedom and fun that she sorely missed now. The bread, and Hikigaya-kun, both.

"You still won't tell me where we are headed?"

"Somewhere I can get us some cash. You do realize that the primary methods of catching kidnappers is by draining their three basic needs: food, fund and family."

"That out of the journalism manual?"

"Before I got kicked back to desk labor, yup."

"So we cannot use our cards, I take it?"

"That out of the detective novel manual?"

"Before I got kicked into this mess, yes."

Hikigaya gave a smile. "They might get your card, but they won't get mine."

She gave him a quizzical look.

"They don't know who I am."

"Don't kid yourself, Hikigaya-kun. You severely underestimate the hands of the Yukinoshita family and the law."

"What are you people, head yakuza of all Japan?"

Yukinoshita stared at him, and he had the grace to look away. True, for a journalist, he had as much interest in politics as the two-year-old kid Saki-san next door had. That he was sure of because the kid was often left at his place when Saki-san had overtime work.

"... On to earth, Hikigaya-kun."

"We take a chance at the nearest teller booth, then we take a train across the country."

"Is that your next plan, Hikigaya-kun? Putting them back on the scent they have hopefully lost by now, and making a dash at night in a place where you are unfamiliar with how the trains run?"

True, it had darkened outside the window. They had been on the train for six hours now, heading nowhere.

"Then, princess, you have better plans for the night than sleeping out in the countryside?"

Smugly, it seemed to him, she took out a concealed purse from who-knows-where (Hikigaya had close to zero knowledge about women's clothing and knew better than to ask) and showed him a bundle of notes. Her smile increased at the dumbstruck look on his face.

"You should have told me so."

"I am sorry, Hikigaya-kun, I had no idea it was common courtesy to tell your kidnappers about your means should they snatch it to prevent you from escaping, when the same kidnapper didn't have the common courtesy to give his name."

KO, she thought, that one got him for sure.

They did not exchange another word the rest of the journey.

The Hachiman, in the course of his travels, had been to many lands, but never had he come across a patch of rock as rough as this. He pinched himself to get back to the land of the living, but looking at the coarse countryside, he felt he was entitled to dream.

Yukinoshita, however, looked unfazed. "Come on," she led the way to the closest patch of lights from the station.

"You realize that this might be dangerous," Hikigaya said, following her.

"More dangerous that swiping your card and getting us found here, do you mean?"

From this, he learnt his nth lesson of the day: keep your trap shut when she does all the thinking.

They eventually made it to a ramshackle inn (at least they hoped so: the other parts of the village looked much less inviting than this one, and that was saying something) and gave an audible gulp. That gave them the necessary courage and daring to walk into it. The place looked like it hadn't been used since the last World War, the guy snoozing at the counter looked like he hadn't woken up since the last World War, and Yukinoshita wished the rooms had been cleaned at least once since the last World War. A moment of hesitation passed, then Hikigaya bravely poked the man in the middle. He had been having these moments of bravado since that morning, and nothing good had come out of them.

With all the grace of a period drama movie, the guy lifted himself up. His wizened face looked at the two of them before speaking.

"So which is it then?"

Yukinoshita gave Hikigaya a puzzled look, wondering if he would shout out 'it's a girl, folks'. She was severely disappointed when he could only get out an "er".

"Heaven or hell, which one is it? Or will you angels take me to the One who will determine my fate?"

Yukinoshita smiled at 'angel', remembered the final 's', then scowled, and rapped the counter hard. "We want rooms for the night."

The old man looked severely disappointed at not having been pronounced dead, and grumbled, "Well, folks don't usually come out this way, so I dunno the state rooms are in. Should have had them cleaned last month, but I dunno if you'll like it. Best one's on the floor above, right next to the stairs, cause its accessible to the folks who want to stay here, don't have to worry about going off the wrong end of this place, quite old this building is, I'll tell you ... "

"We'll take it," Yukinoshita said loudly, dropped a couple of notes at the counter, and made a beeline for the stairs. Hikigaya gave a gracious smile at the old man, who was surprised out of his rambling. "Tough mistress, isn't she?" directed to him.

"Tell me about it," Hikigaya chuckled. "But we'll need the key."

A few minutes later, after having some choicest insults hurled at him, Hikigaya could be found sitting on the single chair the room possessed, while Yukinoshita was curled up on the bed (surprisingly, no futon). They had argued about two rooms ('I wanted to save my money.' 'Which would have been easier had you bothered to notice that those couple of notes you slammed could've bought us the whole place.'), about changing ('You have nothing to change into,' Hikigaya pointed out), and sleeping places ('I am taking the bed alone, and I swear I have pepper spray under my pillow.' 'Yeah, I needed to know that so that I could remove it before doing ... whatever you expect me to do.'), and were tired and exhausted of it all.

After winning the unspoken challenge on who would fall asleep first, Hikigaya sighed and lay down on the hard floor. All things said, it could have turned out worse, but his problems were far from over. He shut his eyes, and immediately fell asleep.

The hard floor and cold air brought Hikigaya out of sleep, it seemed, within no time at all. He gave a small groan, then glanced up at his wristwatch which he still wore. "Four in the morning," he muttered and swore. What could possibly have woken him up? Not the hard floor and cold air, surely, he was far too used to them when he had been in investigative journalism, and had to be in outrageous places at outrageous times, lest the trail get cold. It had been something that had been at the back of his mind the moment they had stepped out of the train into the world. The years of loneliness caught up to him fast now that his companion was asleep. He got up, careful not to make noise and stepped to the door.

He heard voices from the floor below. Low, and indistinct, and threatening all the same. Quickly he made his way to Yukinoshita, still fast asleep. One hand inches above her mouth, he poked her awake with the other one. Fortunately, she didn't cry out. Unfortunately, there was no time to explain.

He put his hand below her pillow, and extracted a small can, the size of a cheap perfume spray, then placed it into her hands. Too confused to react, she could only gape as he picked up the non-functioning lamp from the shoddy table next to the bed and made his way to the door.

"Hikigaya-kun," she whispered, but received no reply. She could barely make his shape out in the dark, for he had not turned on the light. She made to get off the bed, but then understood their situation.

There were footsteps on the stairs. Try as hard you may, in a building as old as that, noiseless steps were few and far between. She could hear them in their silent room, approaching with a definite purpose, towards them. Her blood came rushing to her temples, as all of a sudden his actions made sense. She looked up once again and him, and gasped.

He had disappeared. No, that she could not be sure of in the dark. Since he had moved towards the door, however, she had expected him to there, but the faint flicker of light from the door made it obvious he wasn't. He was somewhere in the dark room, and she was sitting right in front of the door.

Try to think of it as she might, there was one glaring problem in the whole situation: they dared not injure her. It was so obvious that she could hardly believe that she was scared. Maybe, if she went out and talked to them before they saw Hikigaya-kun, he would be spared of some injuries. Most of them, in fact, if they were convinced that she had been the one to plan it and now regretted running away.

Outside, two scruffy men were treading the stairs slowly, afraid of giving away their presence. Waking up at two in the morning, then having to deal with a dumb old fool who looked like his time had come for him, was hardly doing favors for their temper. Then one of them snapped. "Damn the stairs! I'm running up, even if they wake, they won't be in state to put up a fight," he whispered to his companion. He did not hesitate to make good on his words. The other one did hesitate, for about a second, then followed him.

That second, lads. That whole second. It made all the difference: when three minutes later, Hikigaya Hachiman and Yukinoshita Yukino rushed down the stairs into the night, pausing only for a few words with the wizened old man, who looked like he had had the time of his life, and now was ready to go.

For, the first man had rushed up to the room, kicked at the door - it gave way immediately, had seen the girl from the photo he had been given, who was next to the bed, an unexpected hopeful smile on her face as if she was in control of the whole situation. He had not paused to think: his orders had been very clear. In an instant he had a gun pointed at her face, his fingers tightening at the trigger, her expression changing from a smile to shocked, when-

BAM.

The second guy, who was a whole second behind, came to the door in time to see his mate crashing to the floor. Even as he tried to point his drawn gun at anything coherent, something hard struck his head. The last he thought before passing out was how dead those eyes had seemed, and how he wished to never see them again.

Seven minutes later, Yukinoshita was holding a shell shocked Hikigaya Hachiman while they walked to the station. She only could catch "one second earlier" and "fool I was" as he incessantly muttered to himself, but she had other worries.

"How did they know where we were?" At this, Hikigaya scratched his head, and Yukinoshita had the sudden urge to pull at the bit of hair that always stood up.

"Our phones, maybe?"

Sometime later, three men were looking at the phone that had been hidden in the trash can in a train a long way away from the grubby old village. One of them examined it and pronounced his judgment: "The daughter's." The other two nodded. "Clever enough. May have placed it in here anywhere from that end-of-the-world and here, and sneaked off on some other train."

"Speaking of end-of-the-world, Yukinoshita's people got there an hour late and missed the action. Trade-off for poor personnel quality in the interest of time cost us heavily. Idiots don't even know who or what hit them."

The three gave a collective sigh: "Trail's gone cold ... higher-ups won't be impressed ... "

The scent of coffee pulled Hikigaya out of his slumber. He rubbed his eyes to see the train pull out of the station, then spared a severe look at the woman in front of him offering him a cup.

"I like my coffee sweet."

"I never knew Hiki-dead-eyes-kun could perceive the sweetness of coffee just by looking at it."

Grudgingly, Hikigaya accepted his steaming cup, then took a sip. "It's bitter."

"I never said it would be sweet."

Hikigaya decided that it was the last time he was accepting coffee from her.

"How long ... do you think will it be before they find us again?"

They had smashed his phone and thrown it out of the window on the first occasion they had got. They had left hers switched on (she had been insistent on removing her personal data from it) in the trash can of the same train. Considering this, Hikigaya felt optimistic.

"A couple of hours from now?"

Yukinoshita looked at him sadly."I suppose one night of action does little to change a man."

Hikigaya snorted. "I have seen more action everyday at job than you did last night."

"You are right. Perhaps your inherent rottenness is too entrenched for it to change."

Hikigaya smiled; he rarely smiled in the mornings. To celebrate the occasion, he said: "We'll reach destination before they get to us."

"I am as inclined to believe your words as your earlier ones stating those men were out for my blood."

"I am glad to see you start to believe my words so easily. In all seriousness though, there must be a huge tag on your head, now that you are no longer under your family's protection."

"This from the person who wanted to help me by separating me from my family?"

"Contradictions are how most humans live their lives. I- being a loner at heart- have more than the rest of them."

Yukinoshita looked surprised, and Hikigaya found himself getting flustered. "It- that- I may have accepted that for a second, but don't think-"

"Its alright, Hikigaya-kun."

She was smiling at the scenery outside the window, wanting to give him a moment to compose himself before asking him another question.

"You were able to send that message? To ... wherever we are going?"

"Yes."

"What did you say?"

" 'The bear is coming back, Sensei.' " He gave a cryptic smile.

"What in the world does that mean?"

He shrugged, then prepared himself for another nap. She made sure he was asleep, before whispering, "I am thankful too, you know."

She wasn't sure if it was because she had half-wanted him to hear it, but felt his reply more than heard it.

"It's alright, Yukinoshita-san."


End file.
